CARGO

A new system for creating wheelchair access into family cars through vehicle interior scanning and the design of a six degree of freedom system carrying the wheelchair through a complex 3D path

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The SMEs in our consortium are established providers of access products, and wheelchair-into-car solutions. The United States dominates global supply, providing over 49% of access and support devices sold worldwide. Within Europe, they control 29% of the market, with European suppliers only holding 21% of the European market. Global sales of wheelchairs and access products are increasing at 5% pa, whilst the market share of European access companies fell last year by 2% At the same time the EU is imposing legislation and guidelines to improve the disabled access situation on all forms of public transport. As the number of wheelchair users continues to grow each year, our consortium needs to grow new products to take market share back from the US giants and keep pace with the increasing market. To counter this downward trend, our consortium intends to develop the CarGo concept, to permit greater numbers of wheelchair users to gain access to popular cars by developing a wheelchair and accompanying electrically powered lifting system, capable of lifting the user and wheelchair into a vehicle without physical input from the user or helper. Many current products require permanent modification to the vehicle, or outside assistance to store the wheelchair elsewhere in the vehicle during transport. We will develop an innovative electro-mechanical system to carry the user and their wheelchair into the passenger seat space of a car through a complex, optimised path. Our system will allow wheelchair users to travel in a wider range of popular family cars than is currently available, and will impose no permanent modifications to the vehicle, drastically increasing the resale value of the car.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

An EU team developed an integrated wheelchair and lift system, including special new chairs, adaptable to a range of popular cars. Manufacture and testing validated the new designs, as well as the automatic software and hardware control sub-systems.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

With an ageing population, ever more Europeans will need wheelchairs, yet wheelchair-accessible vehicle options are very limited. Currently, the few suitable vehicles that do exist require expensive and irreversible modifications, and a wheelchair-bound person cannot independently operate the lifting equipment.

The EU Disability Strategy calls for identification and removal of such barriers. Hence, the EU-funded http://www.cargo-fp7.eu (CARGO) project aimed to increase the range of options. The six-member consortium worked to realise its CarGo concept, consisting of new wheelchairs paired with new lifts, permitting access to a range of standard vehicles. The system automatically lifts the wheelchair-plus-occupant together into the passenger space, without requiring manual control or input. The wheelchair is restrained to the same safety standards as any normal car seat. CARGO operated between December 2010 and May 2013.

Initial work involved creating a database of the interior spaces available in the 10 most popular family cars in 3 classes. For each, the project calculated the motion paths necessary to achieve access.

The consortium designed and validated a new type of wheelchair. The stage included designing or otherwise obtaining, then testing, a variety of sub-systems, including wheel-mounting mechanisms, locks and associated mechanisms. The prototype wheelchair design was manufactured and validated.

Team members also designed and produced software and hardware control systems to allow autonomous operation. The complete prototype system was installed in the vehicles for which it was designed, successfully demonstrating the concept.

CARGO produced a new and integrated wheelchair/lift system, permitting wheelchair access to the passenger space in a variety of popular vehicles. The system offers improvements to the quality of life and independence of wheelchair-bound people, in addition to commercial opportunity for European small and medium-sized enterprises.